⇨ New Location: THE ATHENAEUM

[ringleaders]

PREPARATION↴ On Day 47, the carnival will find itself merged with the new location, the grounds moved from their usually dimension right into the middle of the Athenaeum. This mean everyone will be waking up to a carnival surrounded by bookshelves instead of trees - the major things being left behind are the forest, lake, and menagerie, which can be accessed through a convenient tree portal made by the Ringmaster. Otherwise, it's book time now, welcome to book city. SETTING↴ The Athenaeum is a city sized library realm comprised of absolutely nothing but hall after hall of books. Some rooms are well organized, vast and carefully categorized, while others are simply enormous piles of tomes with no rhyme or reason to their contents. Many cannot be read at all. The ones you can read, however, are a sampling of literature and history from all over the multiverse, in quantities beyond your comprehension. The catch? The only true way to find what you're looking for is to trust in fate. Literally. The books are cared for by a pair of celestial beings called the Curator and the Scribe. The Curator focuses on collecting and sorting books, both fiction and non-fiction, from all over the multiverse. Their idea of organization is esoteric to say the least, so finding your way around can be more than difficult. The Scribe, in contrast, is primarily a writer - they have penned millions of volumes of true stories from the multiverse, covering a random array of subjects from the beginning of time to the daily anecdotes of mortals in backwater galaxies. In fact, there are almost certain a few stories about you. The real challenge is finding them. You could spend and eternity here without finding what you are looking for. Magic meant to find specific items is non-functional, and brute forcing the process is impossible. All you can do is follow the whimsy of the Athenaeum's stores and find what you were meant to find. PATRONS↴ ► THE CURATOR: The more serious and reasonable of the beings, and prides themself on the idea of having the most expansive collection in the multiverse. They don't normally have a physical form, but they will occasionally take one for the convenience of visitors. Despite being willing to allow select groups to tour the Athenaeum, the Curator does not actually give away or lend out books without receiving something in return. Trying to take or destroy anything without permission will get you in a boat load of trouble. Thankfully, though, the Curator is open to trades - they are always interested in acquiring new or unique books, including stories written by your characters, and will sometimes trade them for volumes of other things they see as being easier to reacquire. They have to actually be some sort of quality, though - the Curator has standards. ► THE SCRIBE: The 'creative type' of the pair, the Scribe is gifted with spontaneous visions of events taking place all over the multiverse. These visions can be of the past, present, and even occasionally the future - the Scribe considers them all to be of great import, and diligently records all of them as they arrive, filling what is probably billions of manuscripts with stories and illustrations. These manuscripts have no real order or narrative purpose - each fragment of story can range from a single sentence to a few pages in length. While trading away these original manuscripts is unthinkable by the Scribe, they are happy to allow visitors to browse and record copies of their works. They may even remember you from one of their stories! They won't, however, remember where they put the book you feature in. ► FICTIONAL CHARACTERS: The nature of the Athenaeum's realm is such that sometimes the being and things from inside of the stories it contains come to life. This can include fictional characters from the Curator's vast collection, or even spectral copies of real people from the Scribe's manuscripts. None of these beings truly have a will outside of role in their own story's structure, but they can be convincing doppelgangers at first glance. These book ghosts are the creatures that the carnival will be performing for - the Scribe is under the impression that visitors make the books happy. In exchange, the carnival may have access to the Athenaeum's resources. DANGERS↴ ► FICTIONAL CHARACTERS: While many of the specters are perfectly innocuous, there is nothing dividing them from the evil and dangerous things in fiction, and within the Scribe's recorded history. It's entirely possible that certain characters or imagined beings may threaten carnival visitors - the best way to fight back against them is to improvise a story back at them, and to play by their stories rules while turning events so that you come out as the winner. Suffice to say, it will be difficult if you aren't a creative type. ► NON-FICTIONAL CHARACTERS: You'll have to wait to see which ones. REWARDS↴ So, it's pretty obvious that the bulk of what you're going to find here is information - which is good, because it's exactly what the Ringmaster chose this location for! If anywhere would have a record of the Queen's Miracles, it'd be this place... the only trouble is actually finding it. Characters will be able to help search for relevant metaplot information and also personal gain, with key information being dealt out based on RNG sign ups. The only catch is that if you sign up for metaplot clues, your character must be willing to share. Sitting on or hiding important plot info won't be allowed long term. Characters will also be able to find Scribe-written stories about the past or future of their own canon, as well as other people's canons, but only with the permission of everyone involved. All Scribe stories will be written as if they are a fairy tale or legend, meaning they will not have much in the way of character introspection or details. The Scribes writing is more like a collection of disjointed fables than anything with a coherent narrative structure - in fact, many of the events they describe have no real point or context in the format they are written. They are all true, however, though the wording may be unintentionally confusing or misleading. Some are accompanied by drawings. You do not need mod permission to play around with information about your own character, but you can't find info about other characters or canons without getting their approval. There will be a place where players can submit pre-written tales based on their character that are open to be found by anyone who wants to, or you can just plan private discoveries among your CR. CHANGES↴ Changes may possibly result from getting wound up in the reality of certain legends and stories. The specifics of this will vary from case to case, however, and will be explained in more depth later. Beyond that, this is a PLOTTING POST, which means you can use it to make plans! The game chat is also a great place to discuss plots, so we welcome you to pop on in if you haven't already! The calendar has been updated with event timing.

Comments

⇨ QUESTIONS

[ringleaders]

Ask your many questions here.

[anti_nonsense]

I know it was mentioned that the Scribe sometimes has information about the future, and the Curator has books from all over the multiverse, but just to be super duper clear: is it possible to find books written/published in the future by canon characters? (That is, if someone was going to publish a book post-canon, it could still end up in this collection even though that hasn't happened yet by our characters' perspectives?)

[worldlyafflictions]

Since Shima did arrive with his smartphone on him, is taking pics considered 'taking without permission'?

[everybodypanic]

Is it actually possible to find stuff like comic books or graphic novels.

[hippocarnival]

Are the book ghosts just specters of people or does it ever form objects/scenery? Like, is the storytelling immersive, I guess, or is it pantomime and talking back at the book?

[textsfromhotland]

How much trouble will you get into if you try to re-organize stuff? Like, say, Alphys finds a manga series ordered by color instead of volume number and tries to fix it?

[whattaprick]

Book specter/setting questions!

1. Is it possible for omniscient 'narrators' to exist in some of the more immersive stories? I'm thinking in the vein of Bastion where there's a constant narrative as your characters go through doing things, which they can argue with in addition to the story ghosts.

2. What if a story calls for a character/role to 'die'? Would this count as a real death?

Random plotting comment

[shearmadness]

Okay, so I'd love to thread with both new and old CR for this event and get some things going earlier on!

Stuff Nui will be interested in:

-Stories! She didn't exactly have a normal childhood, so she'll be interested in reading all sorts of things
-Anything she can find that would help her gain greater control over the magical sight she obtained through one of her contracts with the Ringmaster

Something I'd love to touch on:

-The magical sight in Nui's damaged eye. Is anyone up for Nui seeing something in their character's past? I'd love to work out a CR building opportunity, since Nui's not the sort who'd let social skills hold her back from asking about it

Otherwise, hit me up. I'm open to anything, but those are things I plan on going with.

[everybodypanic]

Jinx's got some stuff Nui could catch. The biggest being that time she abandoned her team.

Or the time they all went camping.

[prazerbutterfly]

Since Nui already has some insight on Tyki, I'm game for her finding out about more of something in particular if she wants. He knows she'd keep quiet even if he'd be reflexively wary of her knowing something.

[textsfromhotland]

Let's plot!!

Hinawa knows so many bedtime stories you guys. She'll actually be helpful in fighting off dangers this time around! Plus, she can trade stories for info. I'm thinking of having her find some storybooks that are loosely based on the events of MOTHER 3, but I'm not sure if she'll make the connection or not. It might be a little traumatizing to find out you die in your near future from a picture book after all.

Alphys is going STRAIGHT FOR THE MANGA COLLECTION. Some of her fanfiction is hiding out in the library, so feel free to stumble upon her steamy Asgore/Toriel ship fics. She might also be able to fight off any threats due to her vast knowledge of anime tropes and cliches!

[everybodypanic]

Please take Jinx to the Manga collection with you, Alphys.

Save her.

[kingsroads]

whoo plotting!

Strange has practically friggen died and gone to heaven. Jury's out if he's going to sleep at all during this time b/c book world is amazing. Strange will spend most of the time trying to look for books on cursebreaking + the fae artifacts RM wants info on, but he's a greedy little information gremlin so he'll probably be constantly taking notes on anything/everything. He's going to write a few stories for book trade as well. There's definitely going to be a Scribe-penned story about that time Strange did necromancy that I'll write up so anyone can comment "hey, what the fuck."

Cole will probably be a bit on the backburner because while book world is nice, this just 100% isn't his element. He does like to be read to, so he'll probably be hanging out and listening to any dramatic complete the story dangers while absolutely failing at it if he gets caught up in one. I know he's a cryptic fuck so I'll gladly write something up if anybody wants to learn something specific about Cole's backstory delivered in a non-confusing manner (the serial killer bits, the real Cole, hanging out in Lavellan's head for a bit, etc.)

[criticallyfucked]

Foster is so here for that necromancy reveal.

He could have SWORN Strange said something about it back during the Masquerade, but then on the Moon Strange was like, not really* so he's gotten really mixed messages on that one.

At least now he can have a halfway coherent conversation with Strange about it, if either of them can stop researching fae long enough to speak.

[criticallyfucked]

Foster is... actually... going to be really into this. For a few reasons.

One, the metaplot. He got invested in it after the manor, but the Ringmaster cast doubt on his intentions and dedication to her after Wismuth (this really shook him badly), so now he has to prove those doubts wrong.

But two, he's such an unapologetically dramatic speaker... everything is already set in dramatic framework for him, but now he has more of a brain for coherent narratives, so this is actually something he'll enjoy(?)

And he'll be good at it. So come tell stories with Foster "there's no such thing as useless information" van Denend, he's gonna be doing loads of research and probably also trading in that book Connie gave him over the moon interlude? Maybe he'll learn to be a nerd after all.

Bonus: Because he's an OC who never talks about himself, I'll be setting up for a story featuring his Tragic Backstory (TM) which also brings up his whole 'broke the limits of Necromancy' magical feat in canon. So if your character's been just really aggravated about what Foster's deal is, that's a thing.

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya will be part of the metaplot chase! And also otherwise hunting down any and all books in reference to magic. Mainly he's looking for what's applicable to his home world situation, but it's pretty easy to get distracted so with little outward danger, he'll be losing himself in the shelves and transcribing the information he intends to keep.

As for personal stories, I'll probably toss up a few legends that center around him since he's living the Hero Life, and also some general Tyrian lore for people to delve into if they find that interesting!

Yuya Will maybe help with metaplot but won't be part of any successful rolling. He's not a huge book person, but he'll be very interested in the book spirits and seeing how much they can be engaged with/getting into a lot of trouble with the nastier ones. He's totally open for improv of all flavors as a result, and as an entertainer he'll be a completely dramatic ham about it. \o/

For personal stories, Drag and I are going to get Zarc information out there in open format, especially for people who want to confront Yuya on the hella dark backstory he doesn't tell anybody about. :'D He just might try (and fail) to confiscate it if he comes into contact with it.

[criticallyfucked]

I kind of want to see if Yuya and Foster can tell a story together... they share a huge flair for the dramatic, I think that would be fun regardless of whether they manage to sync up or just flop tragically.

But also: formally responding here on the Syrlya front, because METAPLOT as well as MAGIC. (Foster is like... building CR with all these magic-wielding bookworms.... for a guy who claims to hate books, I swear.)

USAGI'S CREW

[soft_focus]

OH BOY, BOOK TIME.

Carly I've decided, is not going to handle Athenaeum Whimsy very well, she'll be rather *keen* on finding anything and everything she can regarding shadowspeak and the related. Gotta figure out that magic book of hers after all!

Unfortunately between that and wanting to specifically keep an eye out for what RM wants, she's not handling finding *everything else* very well, and will immediately be shoving books back in their place on the shelf before continuing along.

At least unless someone cools her down but anyway.

If she DOES find something she wants to take back, she's going to be in a bit of a jam-and will potentially resort to writing investigative news reports on various matters the Carnival has dealt with, up to and including the incident at the Manor, if it takes that much to sway the Curator's favor.

STORY-WISE. Unforrrrtunately finding even Incan fairy tales/myths/etc outside standard god-related matters is NOT FUN AT ALL thanks Spain... ...so I will probably have to Cheese this and by cheese I mean enjoy various image based icons collected into a book.

These images will depict various (HEAVILY STYLIZED AND ANTIQUITIZED is that a word) scenes from Carly's life~

It'll probably look sorta like this stuff, but on Paper. ...Or animal skin, more likely. There's gonna be a lot going on basically.

Gongenzaka is next in line of handling the whimsy, if only because he'll probably get two to three pages into things and depending on interest put it back and carry on.

While he's more focused on finding stuff on the Treasures, he *Does* have his eye out for certain methods of chakra magic, and is more likely going to end up curled with a book on certain spirity or historic subjects because InterestsMatter.

So they're doing Great, considering he can't track worth shit in this place.

Gongenzaka isn't really sure if he has anything to offer, but, if it comes to it he may in fact part with one of the books he retained from Portland; check it out, he's not sure this technically existed before all that nonsense.

STORYWISE. I'm actually not 100% sure what I'll do here. Maybe a few scrolls covering the stuff he did in his Vet Times, or things like when he died.

....And when he, uh, maybe caused the agonizing death of like 40 vampires and tore a dude's arm off (OH SHIT I FORGOT ABOUT THAT karma is a bitch Gon)

Reira meanwhile is INTO IT. On the one hand-wind magic for herself, and treasures for RM, those are kinda a priority. On the other the Athenaeum just sent her toward this really rad book about unicorns and she's Reading it.

Unlike the other two in other words, she's following the Whimsy wherever it takes her, and who knows where that will be. Depending on what she finds, she'll be doing her best to write an entire catalogue of the various cards hardwired into her tiny brain; that counts as something right, Curator?

No?

Bugger.

STORYWISE I'm actually writing something more heavy for her-Carly's will all be in the descriptions of images (because like hell will I have time to draw all of those), Gon's will be more vague snippets since Gon doesn't have much story TO SHARE in terms of...what really vitally ought be tossed out there...

But Reira is someone where the idea of taking a peek at her backstory has come up a FEW times in plurks and so on, so we're going to be getting the full Russian Fairytale treatment. GET READY FOR THE STORY OF TRONA, THE MAGIC EYE, AND THE RED WITCH- among other delightful tales that will make zero sense and by others I mean 'there's three little fairytales'.

[hippocarnival]

What was that about 40 dead vampires.

ANYWAY Gon and Yuya should get sucked into some sort of dramatic story, definitely. IDK WHAT YET something that Gongenzaka would at least agree to play along with, if Yuya pouts at him enough.

And I guess Yuya can fill in some of the blanks of Reira's backstory, or politely listen as she tells him all about the unicorn stories and he can tell her he saw a unicorn, once, from a distance. Pretty rad.

[everybodypanic]

Right then.

Last event I sort of disappeared due to burn out and starting a new job. I've settled back into a groove and am ready to do Things!

That being said... Jinx is going to utterly hate it here. She has very little interest in books, reading (unless it's exciting stuff like comics), and is likely to be bored out of her skull. She might even go out looking for trouble or a fight if she gets restless enough. She could even be roped into doing whatever just please god save her from all these books.

[shearmadness]

Adding to our above plotting comment - maybe Nui catching a glimpse of Jinx's past could result in a fight? Nui won't hold a grudge over Jinx lashing out at her, especially if they have a fun fight.

[worldlyafflictions]

Previous CR
I got the Ok from LA for Shima to come across some stories/descriptions of Shima's first go through the Carnival. If anyone who knew/interacted with him before would like to potentially have Shima come poking around to bother your characters during/afterwards, let me know! I'm probably going to hit any big story beats I find, and like... a selection of stupid stuff he got up to.

Live Readings
Since there's going to be interactive elements in the form of book ghosts, Shima will probably be taking a bigger interest in looking around (beyond doing acquisitions work)! I don't know yet if I'll let him be lucky enough to find like... a literal harem, but I do want to do something with this! Also seems like a fun way to do another form of mem-sharing, especially for characters not doing too much active reading.

Adult Section
lol i might do this too.

[soft_focus]

THIS IS NOT GONGENZAKA'S ACCOUNT but during the time the last Shima was around, the Vampire Hell Rescue occurred...annnnnd during that time, Shima ran into VampireGon

This is something filed in a catalog of 'Dumb Things' so tl;dr if you want to re-create a weird fable version of awkwardly asking what being a vampire is like then -poses here, I guess-

(It was quite amusing to say the least, Gon's reply was basically 'I CAN HEAR EVERY SINGLE OUNCE OF BLOOD COURSING IN YOUR VEINS' 'OH, OKAY...............' )

Gon's time as a vampire is probably gonna be one of the things I have as a story for him for that matter so I GUESS that window is there as well laughs.

[spaghettimonster]

Papyrus will be helping search for Metaplot, because if they're doing RM's plan they should do it right and prepare all they can, and where else to start searching for info than in a big library? Perfect! He hardly could have planned it better himself! He may try trading the book he got back in the Manor, or write some stories of his own, in hopes of getting something useful.

Unfortunately, he's going to spend a lot of that searching time complaining about the lack of organization in this place. How does anybody find anything!?

He can probably get by in the story combat stuff, he's at least imaginative and assertive enough about whimsical things for it, but hopefully internal coherency isn't necessary in those narratives.

In terms of story fragments, the UT cast is in agreement - there's Scribe versions of various timelines available for finding. A version of the first human's fall, along the lines of the game's opening video, is pretty on point. I plan to write a couple of mixed mood things, with the importance of kindness and the risks of carelessness, about a few things in the game.

[atouts]

Childermass... is from a canon all about books. Magic books, mostly, but really just a whole lot of books, even if he's not actually the biggest nerd England has to offer (looking at u, strange). So he's going to spending a lot of time searching the stacks. His goals are basically: anything about the Queen's Miracles, anything about lifting Summer Court fae curses, and anything related to Shadowspeak or whatever shadow elementals talk in (since he previously said he would try and help Carly with that one book of hers). There'll be a heck of a lot of shadow crow constructs scattered as he tries to use those to search at a faster pace.

If I do any story encounters, they'll likely be already heavily fictionalized Raven King stories. Either that or dealing with something really dumb. Chances are he'll have a harder time out-storying the specters, so it might be fun to have someone more wildly creative help him out with that.

ACQUISITIONS TEAM will not be asked to steal anything this location. Instead, they'll be asked to please refrain from stealing. They will, however, be on-duty to search for information relating to the Miracles. Whether they do that or not is up to you. There's no actual negative consequence to skipping work and doing something else entirely.

[kingsroads]

tbf, norrell outnerds them both

[fusionactuallysuitsher]

Ugh. Sorry for the fail that was last month and this, I just... wasn't feeling it at all. But, now I'm back and I think I got a handle for it! I hope.

Anywho, Yuzu completely missed the Space Olympics, so she gets to come along with this. She doesn't seem to be very book-heavy, but she is going to be curious as to what's going to be out there. She'll probably be more interested in that adventure-heavy stuff.

If there's any story encounters... I'll need to think of that one, really.

[whattaprick]

Book hunting isn't Lambert's favorite thing, but he's going to make a go at it anyway. A loose outline of available opportunities here:

- Learn more about Lambert's world and the exciting shitty adventures of being a witcher! Options include: find out more about witchers and Lambert's actual backstory, find a story about a 'witcher' that isn't actually Lambert but is someone he knows, learning more about monsters from his world, etc.
- Facing off against specters with him! Lambert's canon is actually super big on the 'tee hee it's fairy tales but GRIMDARK WITH A TWIST' type concepts, so there's a lot to play with there.
- Highly editorialized versions of previous adventures in his time at the Carnival!
- Help Lambert go bookstack diving to find out more about the fae!
- Help Lambert actually write a highly editorialized version of previous adventures in his time at the Carnival!

Totally open to both serious and stupid setups with any of these, go nuts.

For Nightrunners, Lambert will be setting them on the task of finding out information about the Queen's Miracles but also on helping extricate people out of whatever bookish messes they find themselves in. Devour the books, guys, don't let it devour you.

ETA: As of Day 48, Lambert's going to get ahold of some mildly interesting information and want to discuss it with people.

There are also random installments of a serial work called The Scholar and the Crow Prince lying around, but if you'd like your character to get ahold of those please ask first! o/

[prazerbutterfly]

For the metaplot Tyki will be searching for information on the Queen's Miracles. He'll be aiming to pour a lot of energy into this for once since he's on team acquisitions.

For Tyki personally, he enjoys reading and will be found just about anywhere, even on the towering shelves like the cheater he is, looking for information. He'll be interested in stories from his own world most pertaining to the noah and any missing memories. It just means that while he will be focused on doing his job he wouldn't pass up on information that may lead to something personal. The key thing for him is information on the Heart from home. Unfortunately he'll be subconsciously cock blocking himself on this so he'll never find it. Feel free to notice him looking at a lot of books about hearts in general.

If anyone would particularly like to learn anything about Tyki I am open to the idea. Just note that Tyki is a major antagonist and he'll be stalking people as a black cat or himself at times to avoid anyone learning anything major in terms of the Noah/world ending aspect.

Otherwise as a conman he'll be acing any random book encounters should anything pop out of them.

[spaghettimonster]

I think Papyrus needs to find out something of Tyki's antagonist nature, maybe the Noah goal, so he can do a Concern

[espigeon]

I don't really have plans! Uh...

SCOUT: will look for plot stuff but also personal gain and information she can use when she goes back home. There will probably be stories out there about her terrible, terrible past, which will be fun since she doesn't really like to talk about it.

JULIEN: will more likely poke around, also look into angels. His backstory's much less tragic but if you want confusing bullshit or bird transformation I can write about his setting and past.

Of the two Julien would be better at talking his way through stories, he's got a more creative mindset and writes poetry, and has a somewhat better understanding of people. Scout is more direct and detail-oriented and knows more dry history than exiting tales so she may have more trouble.

[alphudo]

Metaplot: Yuusei's pretty new still so he probably doesn't even know about the search for these artifacts. He won't do much about them for this event, probably.

Personal: Yuusei's probably never actually seen a library before, so he's going to probably give as many things a quick glance through as he can if the topic interests him - mainly looking for stuff about mechanics (the subject, not the people) from other worlds but will maybe look through magic things too - but ultimately his heart might pull him toward some sort of information on golems, particularly machines fuelled by magic.
tldr; he wants a book to build little magic robots

I can write little stories for him, maybe, but only if anyone's interested in it.